Shinran

Shinran (21 May 1173-16 January 1263) was a Japanese Buddhist monk who founded the Jodo Shinshu sect of Buddhism, now its largest denomination in Japan.

Biography
Shinran was born in Heian-kyo, Yamashiro Province, Japan in 1173, and he belonged to a branch of the Fujiwara clan. He was orphaned at a young age, and, at the age of 9, he went to a temple in Kyoto to discover what would happen after death. He spent the next 20 years practicing at Mount Hiei, becoming a Buddhist monk. At the age of 29, he achieved enlightenment, and he was defrocked and sent to Echigo Province after the Buddhist establishment in Kyoto persuaded the military to ban nembutsu (devotional chants for Amitabha) in 1207. In 1211, Shinran was pardoned, but, instead of returning to Kyoto, he settled in Kanto and laid out the doctrines of the Jodo Shinshu movement. He died in Kyoto in 1263.